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Darren Watson - Live at The Wine Cellar, Auckland

Veteran bluesman Darren Watson (Chicago Smoke Shop, Midge Marsden Band, Planet Key) is proud to announce the release of Too Many Millionaires, his first all acoustic album, on May Day - Tuesday 1 May, 2018. Watson is also embarking on an 11-date national tour in support of the album throughout May.

The tour takes in most of the country, from Auckland in the north to Dunedin in the south and will feature a killer acoustic band including Steve Moodie (Miles Calder and The Rumours) or Aaron Stewart (Mel Parsons) on double bass, harmonica virtuoso and Chicago Smoke Shop founding member Terry Casey, and Delia Shanly on drums and percussion.

Too Many Millionaires is Watson’s sixth album. However it’s the first released to be specifically produced for, and manufactured on vinyl. It’s also the first to move away from his trademark stinging electric guitar lines, and slick, modern studio production.

Eschewing modern recording & overdubbing techniques almost altogether, Watson sat in front of valve and ribbon microphones for two days at Wellington’s Surgery Studios last November with only his ‘50s vintage Gibson acoustic guitar and his lived-in voice. Joined by a handpicked acoustic band including blues harmonica virtuoso Terry Casey, he and the band played ‘live to tape’ through a selection of his newest compositions. The best takes were kept and mixed by multi award-winning engineer Lee Prebble. The result is an immediacy and intimacy that Watson does not think he has captured on any of his previous, more ‘polished’ recordings.